Hotel Quincy, Singapore, Singapore

Ong&Ong's new hotel raises the bar for Singaporean style
Hotel Quincy was envisaged as a one-of-a kind boutique hotel encompassing all the design aspects from architecture, interior design, landscape, project management and graphic design. This building shows the process of how one design concept is implemented through all design elements, providing consistency in creativity and design.

Quincy was built as an extension of the former Elizabeth Hotel sited next door. To break away from the dated look of its predecessor, dark aluminum and tempered glass was chosen to frame the entire façade. Each space is unique, each an individual configuration, providing a different experience. The aim was to create a distinctive, sustainable and timeless space that goes beyond the existing boutique hotels. The main concept was to create rooms from different variations and permutations of exterior glass and steel cladding. These rooms were then randomly stacked forming a unique one-of-a-kind exterior façade.

Playing on themes such as glamour, luxury and sophistication, the design team incorporated modern design elements and the latest amenities. From steel claddings to exotic rich suede and custom glasswork, only the finest materials are used to create this stunning masterpiece. Interior design is whimsical, with playful characteristics woven into every unexpected nook and corner. Bold, acid colours are selected for the ultra-modern furniture to contrast against the muted undertones backdrop of the off-white walls and grey raw look of cement stones. The landscape philosophy is sensitive to the contemporary building design and maintains a modern and reflective quality to the surrounding space appropriate to a boutique hotel.

Indigenous products in a modern application, such as dark grey steel detailing and granite stonework lit by fanciful light fixtures, demonstrate the fusion of old and new.

source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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Namba Parks, Osaka, Japan

2009 Winner ULI Awards of Excellence: Asia Pacific / 'Green' TOD Design for People
Namba Parks, located in Osaka, Japan, was named as one of four outstanding developments selected as a winner of the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) 2009 Awards of Excellence: Asia Pacific competition.

Designed by The Jerde Partnership, Namba Parks sits adjacent to the Namba train station. It was conceived as a natural amenity in the city, literally an urban jungle, offering a sloping rooftop park that is bifurcated by a sinuous, open-air “canyon” path that reinforces the connection with nature while forming the primary circulation pattern.

Namba forms a dramatic new identity for the city. Alongside a 30-storey office tower and 46-storey residential tower, the project features a new lifestyle commercial center with a rooftop park that crosses multiple blocks while gradually ascending eight levels from the streets of the city. The sloping nature of the park serves as a green and highly visible oasis in a city where nature is sparse. By connecting to the street, the sloping park plane will draw people up and into the project among groves of trees, green spaces, water features and outdoor terraces, where they can dine, read, socialize, or simply taking in views of the city.

The second phase, completed in 2007, physically extends the sloping rooftop park, which rises from eight to 10 levels, and canyon, which opens just above the street on the end of the project opposite the train station.

Namba is a benchmark example of Green Transit-Oriented Development where economic performance and quality green design emerge as a single objective.

source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
architecture NOW

Cooper Union, 41 Cooper Square, New York, United States

Morphosis' interior design of Cooper Union building revealed
In June this year WAN brought you the first look at the exterior of Thom Mayne's spectacularly individual Cooper Union building in New York ahead of its official completion. Now that the hub for future architects is fully functional, with its ribbon cutting earlier this month, new images have been released revealing its inner sanctum.

The Cooper Union is one of the United States oldest higher education facilities, founded in 1859 by Peter Cooper and includes the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture. Specialising in the advancement of science and art the 150 year-old's new building is designed to reflect Cooper’s fundamental belief that education of the highest quality should be as 'free as air and water'. The images taken by Iwan Baan show the community spirit embodied within building's vast open spaces, a cohesive design and an inspirational attention to detail.

"Internally, the building is conceived as a vehicle to foster collaboration and cross-disciplinary dialogue among the college’s three schools, previously housed in separate buildings," said Mayne. "A vertical piazza—the central space for informal social, intellectual and creative exchange—forms the heart of the new academic building. An undulating lattice envelopes a 20-foot wide grand stair which ascends four stories from the ground level through the sky-lit central atrium, which itself reaches to the full height of the building. This vertical piazza is the social heart of the building, providing a place for impromptu and planned meetings, student gatherings, lectures, and for the intellectual debate that defines the academic environment."

The building is a definitive landmark both for The Cooper Union and New York's Cooper Square connecting the school to its community.

"In the spirit of the institution’s dedication to free, open and accessible education, the building itself is symbolically open to the city," added Mayne. "Visual transparencies and accessible public spaces connect the institution to the physical, social and cultural fabric of its urban context. At street level, the transparent facade invites the neighborhood to observe and to take part in the intensity of activity contained within."

As part of this connection 8,800 sq ft of public space takes form in the Frederick P. Rose Auditorium, the Menschel Board Room, and the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Exhibition Foyer and Gallery. The remainder of the 175,000 sq ft of space over 9 stories accommodates 39,000 sq ft of laboratories, 10,000 sq ft of studios, 15,400 sq ft of classrooms and over 5,000 sq ft of student space.

source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
architecture NOW

FLAME - Exposition Pavilion, Żory, Poland

New exposition pavilion as gateway to the city of Żory
FLAME exposition pavilion is situated with prominence on an exposed site near the main access road to the city. The aim of the pavilion is to promote the city of Żory and to showcase its offerings to newcomers, tourists, partners and investors as well.

The name of the city – Żory means “fire”, ”burnt”, “flames”. In XII century, when Żory was founded, forest was burnt in order to create free space for the new city. This tradition is still alive – there is a Festival of Fire in summer, and the logo of the city is a small Flame.

It became obvious to the architects, that they should design a building, that looks like a flame. The building consists of three independent walls that “swim” next to each other. Their composition and shapes covered with copper plates resemble dancing flames. Spaces between the walls are fully glazed forming entrances to the pavilion. Walls are made of architectural concrete, covered on the outside with copper plates and left untouched inside. The floor is paved with black stone, and continued to the outdoor elements.

The Pavilion has two main spaces –one for exhibition and the second – for presentation. A model of Żory centre will be exhibited under the glass floor. With a small bar, office , restrooms and technical rooms the program is complete.

Surrounding the pavilion is intensive landscaping. The Pavilion and the landscape work together creating a symbiosis of space consisting of pavilion itself, pedestrian paths running through the pavilion and green walkways.

source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
architecture NOW

Palestra, London, United Kingdom

A significant addition to South London's commercial office market
The 295,000 sq ft (net internal area) / 405,000 (gross internal area) speculative development for Blackfriars Investments Limited and Royal London Asset Management is located on Blackfriars Road directly opposite the new Southwark underground station. The building’s bold architecture is seen as an expression of the developer’s confidence in both the scheme itself and in the South central market as an important new business location in central London.

With large, virtually column-free, flexible floor plates capable of subdivision, the building provides twelve floors of high quality contemporary commercial office space in a distinctive building in an acknowledged emerging business location. The ground floor retail and 5th and 6th floors were pre-let to The London Development Agency twelve months prior to the building’s completion and were occupied in September 2006. The remainder of the building was occupied by Transport for London at the end of 2007.

With its use of colour, retail pod at ground floor and distinctive floating block design, the Palestra building pioneers a new approach to commercial office design and symbolises a commercial renaissance of London’s south central business district.

The Architect says of the building; "A commercial brief need not negate the creation of a building enjoyable for passers-by. I am confident that Palestra will prove an enhancement to Blackfriars bridge road and be a fitting landmark for this part of the city."

The design is characterised by three separate volumes stacked on top of each other to break down the mass of the building and relate it to its surroundings. All three volumes differ in size, proportion, orientation and appearance yet are unified by the same architectural language. The lower tilted ‘ground-scraping’ slab lifts up towards the west cantilevering six meters above the pavement to create a dynamic building entrance and public space.

Visitors approaching the building will enter directly under the inclined soffit into an attractive reception complete with art wall, coloured glass cladding to stair core and a specially designed tilted reception desk. A key feature of the ground floor is the extraordinary pod shaped retail unit that has been let by the London Development Agency for public exhibition space. Lift lobbies adjacent to reception provide ready access to the eleven (twelve floors include the ground floor) upper office floors.

The building is clad in a glazed curtain walling system treated with a random pattern of coloured ceramic frit and solid panels to achieve a patchwork effect of colour giving scale and texture to the facade.

source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
architecture NOW